The Impact of Mass Media on Rural Development

Mass media refers to communication devices, which can be used to communicate and interact with a large number of audiences in different languages. In the current situation, the role of mass media is very import to upgrade the rural society. It can stimulate the rural people towards progress. The mass media have been used at once for transmission of development communications to the people of this society as in others. The aim of the present study is explore the role of mass media in rural development in District Bhavnagar. This study was conducted in two tehsils of District Bhavnagar (Tehsil Talaja and Tehsil Mahuva). After choosing the Tehsils, four union councils, two from each tehsil were selected through random sampling method. At the end a proportional sample 120 respondents were selected randomly and interviewed by using a well-designed interview schedule. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used for data analysis. It was found a huge majority (81.7%) of the respondents were watching TV without cable connection, whereas more than a half (55.0%) of the respondents had cable connection. A substantial proportion (58.3%) of the respondents had perception ‘to a great extent’ that the mass media presents the awareness program about rural development. A huge majority (70.0%) of the respondents had thinking ‘to a great extent’ that the mass media presents the political awareness program. Majority of them were also agreed that mass media presents the information about the government/NGOs policies regarding rural development. More than a half i.e. 57.5 percent of the respondents had opinion ‘to a great extent’ and 25.0 percent of them had opinion ‘to some extent’ that the mass media presents the educational policies of the government for rural areas. The Government should take steps to raise literacy rate in the rural area.